Kargo

History

The band was formed in the early years of the 1990s by Selim Öztürk (guitar) and Mehmet Şenol Şişli (bass guitar). Although the Turkish music industry was dominated by pop music, Kargo was able to break through with their first album Sil Baştan (Start Over). The first line-up soon broke up and the two founders had to find new members.

The first member to join Kargo was Serkan Çeliköz, who is the brother of Mehmet’s university schoolmate Aykut Çeliköz. Being a music student and able to play wide range of instruments as keyboard, guitar, violin, bassoon and contrabass made Serkan a perfect choice. Later Burak Karataş joined Kargo as the drummer and the only thing left was the long search of the lead singer. Koray Candemir, who impressed the other members by his performance in a local bar, was offered the position. With his acceptance Kargo began to record their album Yarına Ne Kaldı (What is left for tomorrow?) which became a smash hit in 1996. Yüzleşme, the first single from the album Yarına Ne Kaldı, rise to the top of the charts even though it was a pure rock song. Kargo proved that a rock group can be successful in the Turkish music industry.

In 1997, Kargo released their second album Sevmek Zor (Love is Hard). Sevmek Zor was dedicated to different kind of emotions that can occur in a romantic relationship. Every song had a theme such as pureness, cheating, sadness, guilt, distance, hope, acceptance, pain, etc.

Problems that occurred because of unsuccessful tour organization made Kargo bitter. They decided to tell their anger in their next album Yalnızlık Mevsimi (Season of Loneliness). In Yalnızlık Mevsimi all songs were written and arranged in an order to tell a one big story about being alone. It easily became the favorite album of many Kargo fans.

In 2000, Kargo released Sen Bir Meleksin(You are an angel) as their fifth album. Sen Bir Meleksin was soft and acoustic when compared to the previous album Yalnızlık Mevsimi. With this album Kargo was able to reach many new listeners from older age groups.

After Sen Bir Meleksin, Kargo decided to take a break to go on with their personal projects. They released a Best Of Kargo album before this break. Kargo’s lead singer Koray Candemir released his first solo album Sade while Selim and Serkan Celikoz successfully produced many albums for many different artists.

In 2003, Kargo decided that it was once again time to release an album together. Kargo’s bass player MŞŞ (Mehmet Şenol Şişli) decided not to participate in this new album. Rest of the Kargo started working on their seventh album early in 2004 and Ateş ve Su (Fire and Water) was released in May 2004.

In 2005, they released Yıldızların Altında (Under the Stars) containing cover songs of other artists, as well as remixes of older Kargo songs. The first single, which the album was named after, became a smash hit both on radio and television. With the success of Yıldızların Altında Kargo toured Turkey, giving more than 100 concerts in a year which made them earn the second position in number of concerts given by a Turkish Rock Artist.

In December 2008, Koray Candemir and Serkan Çeliköz announced that they quit Kargo after 14 years. Only a few weeks after the announcement, Mehmet Şenol Şişli ended his hiatus and joined the band again as Kargo's main bass player.

Albums

Singles